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The Jamaican Families Torn Apart by Hurricane MelissaDays after a powerful hurricane made landfall in Jamaica, thousands of residents are now homeless and trying to make sense of how they narrowly survived. The New York Times traveled to the storm\u2019s center in Black River, and found a community destroyed \u2014 without food or clean water \u2014 where families are desperate and still traumatized after being cut off from the outside world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last thing I said to my sister, I called her and I said, \u2018Sister, please be safe. Be safe.\u2019 And I said, \u2018I love you.\u2019 And that was the last time.\u201d These sisters have just returned to their home outside of Black River, Jamaica, days after a Category 5 hurricane destroyed their community and tore the family apart. \u201cThey said, \u2018Let us make a chain.\u2019\u201d \u201cSomething like this.\u201d \u201dYou want to hold on one another.\u201d \u201cYou want to hold on one another.\u201d \u201cMy grandson, he was the one who taking us out because the water wasn\u2019t up that much. So we was trying to escape.\u201d Boreen Barrett was swept away by a blast of seawater as Hurricane Melissa made landfall. She was a mother of four. \u201cWhere was your sister\u2019s body found?\u201d \u201cThere, across the bush over there.\u201d \u201dWas it like a wave that just came through?\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s when it swept her away.\u201d At least 28 people are known to have died from the storm, but the full impact on people\u2019s lives is far greater. Thousands are now displaced with little food and water, and aid has been slow to arrive. Just outside of Black River, we found Nicole Gowdie and her partner, Oliver Stewart, sheltering in their car along the road next to what was left of their house. They told us they barely survived. Just over a year ago, a Category 4 hurricane hit this same coast and communities were still recovering. This time, the need is more vast and more urgent as days pass for many stuck without basic necessities. The Jamaican government has been leading an international aid effort. The first supply convoy arrived in Black River on Nov. 1, and airdrops to more isolated communities are scheduled for the coming days.<\/p>\n
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Days after a powerful hurricane made landfall in Jamaica, thousands of residents are now homeless and trying to make sense of how they narrowly survived. The New York Times traveled to the storm\u2019s center in Black River, and found a community destroyed \u2014 without food or clean water \u2014 where families are desperate and still traumatized after being cut off from the outside world.<\/p>\n
By Brent McDonald, Singeli Agnew and Ben Laffin<\/p>\n
November 3, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"new video loaded: The Jamaican Families Torn Apart by Hurricane Melissa transcript Back transcript The Jamaican Families Torn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[17135,13979,13676,7379,9,11,10,5253],"class_list":{"0":"post-27223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-emergency-response-and-preparedness","9":"tag-hurricane-melissa","10":"tag-hurricanes","11":"tag-jamaica","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-vis-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}